SENEGALESE SOCIALISTS IN SEARCH OF LEGITIMACY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 002134 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL AND INR/AA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM SG SUBJECT: SENEGALESE SOCIALISTS IN SEARCH OF LEGITIMACY SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Senegal's main opposition party, the Socialist Party (PS), held its 14th Congress on October 27-28, 2007. Under the theme of "nouvel lan," they announced the beginning of a new march to regain the power they lost in 2000 when President Abdoulaye Wade's victory ended 40 years of Socialist rule in Senegal. Although a Congress is supposed to be held every three years, the PS's last congress was in 1996, leading to questions of the leadership's legitimacy. Through a democratic process of elections at grassroots levels, the party confirmed Ousmane Tanor Dieng as its Secretary General. However, if Dieng has defined a new strategy favoring confrontation with Wade, he seems to have failed to relegate the PS's old guard and promote a new leadership that embodies the alternative that the PS is claiming to offer to the masses who are dissatisfied with Wade's government. END SUMMARY. THE END OF A CIVILIZED OPPOSITION -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The PS has indicated that it will no longer be a civil "Opposition Republicaine," and will adopt more confrontational approaches in response to Wade's aggressiveness. This new strategy was underlined by the election of Barthelemy Dias, as Head of the Youth Movement. Dias earned his political spurs in 2006 by being imprisoned for denouncing bad governance and corruption in the Wade government. Dias supports meeting fire with fire to counter any violent actions that the ruling Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS) may launch against the PS. Ms. Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye, who does not shy away from confrontation with Wade, has been reelected as head of PS women's movement. She was the first PS leader to organize a real demonstration against Wade in her hometown of Louga. The PDS responded by ordering arbitrary police arrests that a judge eventually threw out. Dieng, energized by his new legitimacy, set the tone of the PS Congress by vigorously denouncing Wade's policies. What was remarkable at the Congress is that Dieng, reputed to be gray, rigid, and introverted, seems to have overcome his lack of charisma by cracking jokes and appearing relaxed and confident. A NEW VISION -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The PS Congress outlines a new vision and a new way of doing business, under the slogan "Nouvel Elan." The new party platform envisages taking small steps to break away from the past. The corner stone of the PS's new communication strategy will be "telling the truth to the people." They will, with or without Wade's accord, organize a "National Dialogue" to build a consensus with other political movements on what Senegal's priorities should be. Dieng calls this new approach "consensus democracy to supplement the weaknesses of majority democracy." In Dieng's view, Wade has corrupted the mechanism of the majority by tinkering with elections and appointing sixty- five per cent of the members of the recently recreated Senate. This consensus will be the foundation upon which they plan to regain power. The PS believes that no single party can win transparent elections in Senegal, and that a coalition is needed to defeat Wade. Gorgui Ciss, Chair of The Network of Socialist Academics at Dakar University told Pol FSN, "We will go beyond alliances based on the current to build an alliance based on doctrine and the long term. This may go as far as merging parties." The PS vowed in its introductory report presented to the Congress that it will abandon the practice of "clientelism and the purchase of votes" for the promotion of political activism that is "an act of faith rather than an investment." SENEGAL'S DEMOCRACY IS IN TROUBLE -------------- ¶4. (SBU) The Socialists deplore what they consider to be the institutional crisis that is affecting Senegal. They are deeply worried by Wade's supremacy over all the institutions of State saying that it has resulted in the trivialization of the Government and a loss of credibility for the National Assembly, which has no real opposition party as a result of the PS decision to boycott the last legislative elections. The PS also denounces Wade for weakening of the judiciary and the alleged bribing of judicial officials by the executive branch officials. The Socialists also condemn the erosion of the separation between religion and state, the erosion of the rule of law, and the weakening of national unity through Wade's policy of divide and rule that plays on ethnicity, regionalism and religious denominations. THE USUAL SUSPECTS -------------- ¶5. (SBU) While the Socialists succeeded in legitimizing their Secretary General they failed to bring about change in the party's SIPDIS leading organs such as the "Bureau Politique" and "Comite Central." Mr. Khalifa Sall, who is in charge of elections for the PS and who chaired the Congress, is thought by many Senegalese as representing the old PS regime that was rejected in 2000. Ms. Aissata Tall Sall, DAKAR 00002134 002 OF 002 the leading PS figure in the region of Saint-Louis and one of the party's more popular names, told Pol FSN that the leadership was so afraid to announce the names of the party leadership that they instead asked the Congress to give the Secretary General and his entourage a blank check to shape the party's leading organs in the coming weeks. If the old guard should prevail, it will create frustration among those who are advocating change within the party. They will interpret an old guard victory as a slap in the face of younger leaders from the network of academics or youth movements such as Vision Socialist who they say are vital for the party's renaissance. COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Although the PS is not represented in the National Assembly as a result of its own disastrous decision to boycott the last legislative elections, the PS has for the time being survived Wade's vigorous and repeated attempts to eliminate it from the political scene. However, it is still faced with the challenge of installing the kind of leadership that will get rid of the stigma of corruption and inefficiency that many Senegalese still associate with the PS of old. The Fourteenth Congress heralded a new vision and strategies for dealing with Wade and the ruling PDS but failed to tackle this urgent issue of developing a credible alternative to the PDS program. If Dieng cannot surmount this challenge for fear of alienating his entourage, it will be extremely difficult for the party to lead a significant coalition and become a true force for change in the eyes of Senegalese voters. SMITH